History VideoGame / DuneII

** The Ordos saboteur can be controlled and is much faster than normal infantry, but it isn't invisible and is likely to die before it can sabotage any building. Being a [[SuicideAttack suicide unit]] means it can only be used once and respawning a new one take forever.

* CarFu: Do ''not'' send an infantry squad to take down an otherwise defenseless Harvester...

* TheChosenOne: The Commander from Dune 2000 was introduced by the Bene Gesserit after they had a prophecy that he would rise in power to command vast armies, destroy Corrino, and bring peace to Arrakis. They don't actually care which side you join to do this. Other than a bit of initial confusion over how the hell you got there the faction you join doesn't care about the connection.

* {{Determinator}}: Sardaukar will not be suppressed by enemy fire. ''Ever.'' Fremen however, ''[[AvertedTrope can]]'', which isn't exactly accurate to the books.

* InvisibilityCloak: Fremen units are perpetually invisible, unless badly injured. This is meant to represent their skill at moving and hiding in the desert.

* MythologyGag: In Dune 2000, during some of the Ordos cut scenes, Edrico can be seen sitting in a Harkonnen Chair. This is the famous chair that was designed by H.R. Giger for the unproduced 70s Alejandro Jodorowsky's ''Dune'' film. Despite that film never happening, it is still called the Harkonnen chair and has been since produced in larger numbers and are actually for sale.

* SpaceMarine: The Sardaukar are depicted as this, clad in much heavier armor then other House infantry. They wear distinctive box-shaped helmets with green view-ports, echoing their portrayal in the 1984 film.

* TankGoodness: The Harkonnen Devastator. It has an on-board atomic reactor and radiation-based weaponry. [[{{Expy}} An equivalent huge, double-barreled tank]] [[SpiritualSuccessor appears in every]] ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' game to date.
** Each faction has a Combat Tank in their arsenal, but have different in terms of stats. The Atreides tank is the JackOfAllStats. The Harkonnen tank is the MightyGlacier. The Ordos tank is the FragileSpeedster.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: ''Dune 2'' had only a limited supply of spice on a given map and when you harvested it all you better had an army capable of winning fielded or you could restart. ''Dune 2000'''s development team must have taken notice since in this game the spice keeps regenerating faster then it can ever be harvested, allowing you to saturate the entire map with [[{{TankGoodness}} tanks]] if you feel like it.

* WorkerUnit: The ubiquitous, beetle-like Spice Harvester (presented exactly as they appeared in the 1984 film) and the Construction Yard. Carryalls also function as such, automatically ferrying harvesters to and from spice fields. These carryalls are entirely automated and uncontrollable (though they will automatically ferry a damaged unit to an available repair pad).

* WormSign: Burrowing sandworms are visible as distortions on the desert surface, but are invisible on the minimap until the little dot representing your harvester disappears.
** In ''Dune 2000'', the sandworms are followed by bolts of lightning, caused by static discharge from the sand.

* AchillesHeel: The Ordos Devastator is the strongest tank in the game. However, it's extremely vulnerable to the Ordos Deviator, which can take control of it and force it to activate its SelfDestructMechanism.

* CoolPlane: Ornithopters, aircraft that use actual flapping wings to achieve flight. In ''Dune 2000'' The Atreides could call in a flight of these for an airstrike as a support power.
* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Though FactionCalculus applies, The house armies in ''Dune II'' and ''Dune 2000'' had largely identical units. Key differences were each faction's combat tank and unique unit, as well as their {{Support Power}}s.

* ConvenientColorChange: [[EnemyExchangeProgram If converted by the Ordos' Deviator gas]], units turn green (or whatever color the Ordos player is using).
** As modders found out while toying around with the Deviator, it doesn't change the units to your side, it turns them over to the ''Ordos''. So if a non-ordos unit uses it, it will simply switch the target over to the ordos side, which will then simply continue attacking you.

* EnemyExchangeProgram: The aforementioned Ordos Deviator. It doesn't last, though, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation despite what Ordos mentat says]].

The Dune games featured GeoEffects quite early in the history of RealTimeStrategy. Buildings could only be built on rock, and there were limited rock available, meaning that players had limited base-building opportunities. Further, infantry could be positioned on mountains to protect them from being run over by tanks, and vehicles would move much slower over dunes than just desert plains. And, lest we forget, this is ''Dune'' we're talking about here - rock is also a safe haven from the [[SandWorm Shai-Hulud]].